


cannibriated confessions

by sweetlike_honey



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: F/M, au where the midtown kids are a bunch of stoners
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-07
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:53:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 14,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22153582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetlike_honey/pseuds/sweetlike_honey
Summary: mj has had her fair share of trauma in her seventeen years on earth. how does she cope? by getting so stoned every day that she can barely remember her name. she’d never tell anyone that, especially not peter and ned with whom she has almost weekly smoke seshes with, and definitely not her decathlon team with whom she has monthly kickbacks with. it never hurt to numb out the heartache of the world for a little while, but what happens when it all gets to be a little too much?
Relationships: Betty Brant & Michelle Jones & Ned Leeds & Flash Thompson, Betty Brant & Michelle Jones & Ned Leeds & May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker, Michelle Jones & May Parker (Spider-Man), Michelle Jones & Ned Leeds & Peter Parker, Michelle Jones/Peter Parker
Comments: 2
Kudos: 28





	1. welcome back

**Author's Note:**

> CANNIBRIATED (per urban dictionary): “an overconsumption of cannabis that produces a result far greater than being stoned.”  
> EX: after we smoked that joint, i was cannibriated.
> 
> follow me on twitter to see when i update:-) @ruexlexi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> it's the first week of senior year, and the decalthon team is VERY confused as to why they're getting a transfer senior joining the team

“Sup, losers?” MJ said, sitting across Peter and Ned at their lunch table. It was the first week back at Midtown for their senior year. The shackles of high school melodrama were a mere nine months from coming off. Adults already began pestering her about life after graduation, and it was all incredibly aggravating.

“Hey, MJ,” Ned replied, smiling at her. 

She glanced at Peter and noticed a large bruise cascading his right arm. It had been two years since she figured out he was Spider-Man, yet she waited for him to tell her himself. She had her suspicions after D.C. their sophomore year, and getting closer to him and Ned had only solidified it. It bothered her more than she’d care to admit that Peter still hadn’t told her about his secret identity. She always thought about confronting him to see him crack under pressure, and she did love teasing her best friend, but she could never find the courage to say anything. She wanted Peter to trust her with his secret, and it hurt her that he didn’t. “What’s up with you?” she asked Peter, snapping him from his trance.

“Oh, uh, I, uh, just didn’t really sleep,” he answered, lowering his jacket sleeve to cover his ominously large bruise. 

“Yeah, well, you look like shit, so it makes sense,” MJ quipped, grabbing a book from her bag. 

He rolled his eyes and threw a crumpled napkin her way. “Are you still gonna force us to go to decathlon practice the first week back?”

“If you don’t like it, you can always quit the team,” MJ answered. “Harrington says we’re getting a new girl this year anyway, so we’ll still have the same numbers.” 

“New girl? What grade is she?” Ned asked while twirling a pencil in his hand. 

“Our year,” MJ replied.

“Why is she transferring if she’s a senior?” 

“I don’t know. Maybe she got expelled or something from her old school,” MJ answered, pulling a book from her backpack. She’d been working on it for a few days now, but that sucker was 1000 pages with a font as small as a rice grain.

“But why would she be on decathlon if she’s a delinquent?” Peter asked, noisily opening a bag of Doritos. MJ found her eyes lingering on his lips as he was about to bite one, but quickly caught herself and returned focus back to her book.

“Ned asked, and I answered. I don’t see you coming up with anything better, loser.”

“Hey now,” Peter started, “we’ve already established I didn’t sleep last night. Give me a break.”

“You know that’ll never happen,” MJ remarked, maintaining focus on the page she was reading. “You’re basically asking to be messed with, like, all of the time.”

“Okay, MJ. Whatever you say.”

The rest of lunch passed fairly quickly, much too quick for MJ’s liking. There was only one more period left in the day, so she could almost go home, but some cruel soul had decided to make pre-calc her last class. The thought of pre-calc made her brain twist. She was never the smartest with numbers. History? English and writing? Back-of-her-hand easy. There was just something about numbers that got her brain all fuzzy and confused. Luckily, Peter and Ned took the class last year, so she figured if she needed help, she could just ask them.  
Pre-calc passed by surprisingly fast, but it was only the first day. Class mainly consisted of Mr. Cooper giving his introductory presentation, even though almost everyone in the class already knew him. He tried to get them to do icebreakers with each other, but the seniors insisted he let them play on coolmathgames for the remainder of the period.

After hiding in the library while waiting for the after school chaos, MJ made her way to the gym for decathlon practice. She didn’t technically have to be there for another ten minutes, and everyone was usually late anyway, but she liked to be early. It gave her a little time to prep and calm her jitters. It may seem like she’s always calm and collected, but everyone has a front they put up. Now, that’s not to say that MJ isn’t incredibly cool if she does say so herself, but anxiety has its ways of chipping pieces of her wall away. That was one of the things she liked the most about being friends with Peter and Ned. They were pretty much the most understanding people in the entirety of Brooklyn, and she never worried they judged her for not being on top of her game. 

She sat in one of the chairs next to the folded tables she’d have to set up for practice. Or maybe she wouldn’t. It was the first week back from summer, and nationals weren’t for another seven weeks. Honestly, MJ thought, Harrington can just introduce the new girl and everyone can leave. 

MJ sat alone for a few minutes before the team slowly trickled into the gym. They all made small talk with each other about their summers. Flash boasted about his trip to the Hamptons and his cruise through the Caribbean, while Betty and Zach talked about running into each other on their trips to Disney. MJ just sat and listened. Her summer was as ordinary as could be. She worked at the bookstore down the street from her apartment almost every day, and read an oddly low number of books. She was with Peter and Ned the majority of the time when she didn’t have work. She learned much more about Star Wars than she cared to, but it was always nice to see the losers happy. Neither one of them had ever really had easy life circumstances, so who was she to take away something that helped them forget that. 

At 3:20 pm, everyone had finally shown up, including the new girl who hadn’t introduced herself yet. “Alright, um, let’s get started,” MJ said, pulling everyone’s attention from their individual conversations to her. 

“Please say we’re not running drills today,” Flash pleaded, adjusting the collar of his shirt. 

“It’s literally the first week.”

“Well with all that downtime you had on your cruise, Flash, I’m sure you had lots of time to study what everyone else already knows,” MJ surmised, which earned some light laughter among the team. “But no, we’re not running drills today.”

Relief seemed to spread to each member at the knowledge of not having to work their brains at 100 miles per second on the first week of school. 

Mr. Harrington cleared his throat from behind the group and stood from his seat. “We have a new member this year,” he gestured to the tall blonde in the chair to his left, “Miss Gwendolyne Stacy.”

“I actually go by Gwen,” the girl corrected from her seat. “Hey.” She gave a nervous wave to the pondering eyes on her.

“What grade are you in, Gwen?” Betty asked, moving in her chair to fully face the other blonde. 

“Senior.”

“Why’d you transfer for senior year?”

“Um,” Gwen started, fidgeting with her hands in her lap, “my dad’s station transferred him over here. They needed a new chief.”

“Station? As in like the fire department?” Ned asked.

Gwen smiled. “Close… Police.”

Peter looked at MJ with an I-told-you-so look on his face. Okay so maybe the girl wasn’t an expelled delinquent. It was just the first answer that came out of her mouth.

“Your dad is the chief of police?” Flash asked, baffled, already unlocking his phone to tweet some idiotic blurb about the newfound information. 

“Yeah…” Gwen trailed. It was clear she was uncomfortable with all the attention, so MJ called it back to herself.

“Okay, so, um,” MJ began, heads turning back in her direction, “I didn’t really have a plan for today. Just wanted everyone to see each other after summer, I guess. We’ll start actual practices next week, but we’re done for now.”

Almost everyone raced out of the gym as fast as they’d come, but Gwen remained in her seat, rummaging through her backpack. “Where’d they go?”

“Lost something?” MJ asked, walking toward Gwen.

“Yeah, I think I lost my keys. I swear I just had them when I came in here.” 

MJ noticed a lanyard dangling from Gwen’s pocket. “Are those them?”

Gwen looked down at her pocket and sighed in relief. “Thanks. It’s just been a really crazy day.”

“Yeah, no worries.” MJ held her hand out to Gwen to shake, “I’m MJ.”

She happily reciprocated the act. “You’re pretty much the only person I do know. Mr. Harrington told me you’re the captain.”

“Yep,” MJ nodded, “it’s basically the only thing I do. I don’t really do the whole ‘high school’ thing.”

“I was super involved at my old school, but I don’t know about here.” Gwen zipped her backpack and stood from the chair. “Just seems pointless since I’ll only be here for less than a year.”

“Well,” MJ started, grabbing her backpack from the floor and taking her keys from the side pocket, “you’re always welcome to not do anything with me and my friends. We normally hang at my place on the weekends.”

Gwen smiled, and the two girls made their way to the gym exit. “I might just take you up on that.”

~~~

“Gwen seems nice,” Peter commented. The three of them were at his apartment watching movies since it was only the first week of school, and the homework loads hadn’t hit yet. 

“I invited her to hang with us sometime,” MJ said, biting one of the mango slices May had bought for her. She always stocked up before MJ came over because she knew they were her favorite. “She seems chill enough.”

“Dude, her dad’s the police chief,” Ned stressed. “Are we sure she won’t rat us out or anything?”

“Not if we don’t do anything around her. We’re functioning teenagers, Leeds,” MJ explained, “and we know how to hang without doing anything ‘bad’.” She put air quotes around bad. 

Peter’s phone buzzed on the table, and he immediately checked the notification. “Uh, I gotta go guys.”

“It’s like 8 o'clock on a Thursday,” MJ pointed out. “Literally where do you have to go?”  
Peter looked at Ned, eyes widening and mouth forming a tight line. Ned silently mouthed “oh,” and nodded his head. 

“Peter has a thing with Mr. Stark. He said something about it earlier, remember?” Ned lied through his teeth. MJ knew better than to believe anything they said when it involved Peter making a spontaneous, timely exit. 

“Yeah. Sure.”

“You guys can stay here if you want. I don’t know when I’ll be back.” Peter started walking to his room.

“I’ll probably just head home,” MJ said, swinging her legs over the edge of the couch. “We still on for this weekend, though?”

“For sure,” Peter said, slipping into his room and shutting the door behind him. 

“Duh,” Ned nodded.

MJ acknowledged she heard them, then made her way out the door to head home. Yeah, Peter definitely has a thing with Tony Stark. It’s definitely not because his superhero alter ego is needed somewhere. Definitely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> follow me on twitter to see when i update;-) @ruexlexi
> 
> *i fancasted hunter schafer as gwen stacy btw*


	2. don't you trust me?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> *cue the chorus to young, wild, and free* 
> 
> our fave trio has their first mini kickback of the school year, and some bottled up feelings finally spill over the edge

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> follow my twitter i tweet about zendaya everyday @ruexlexi

“We brought snacks,” Ned stated as he and Peter walked into MJ’s apartment. 

“Good. We’re gonna need ‘em.” MJ locked the door behind them and shoved a towel against it on the floor. “Mel said we can use her bong if you guys wanna try that, or we can stick to my good ole pipe.”

“Porque no los dos?” Peter asked, sprawling himself out onto the recliner in the living room. 

“I like your thinking, Parker,” MJ answered.

The three of them had been smoking together since spring break junior year. Ned and Peter were over one night, and Mel offered them all to try hitting a bong. MJ readily accepted, since Mel never let her smoke any weed, but the boys were beyond hesitant. 

Understandably, since the two of them were the epitome of innocence, but after a little gentle persuading, they both tried it. Mel got MJ a pipe for her birthday after that, and the three of them tried to make it a thing to smoke together at least once a month to destress.

“Want me to light it for you?” MJ asked Peter as he uncertainly looked between the lighter and bong in his hand. He gave a shy nod and handed MJ back the lighter. “Breathe in,” she instructed as she held the flame to the bowl. 

Peter drew a large breath in which resulted in a coughing attack immediately afterward. MJ laughed, and Ned handed him his water bottle. “Mel does that all the time?” he managed to choke out in between coughing and drinking his water. 

MJ nodded as she lit her pipe for herself. “Why do you think she’s so happy all the time?” she asked after breathing smoke out the window. She offered the pipe to the losers, but both shook their heads.

It didn’t take much longer after that for their highs to kick in. Ned managed to get one of the Star Wars movies playing on the TV before MJ even realized, and he didn’t remember where he left the remote. He leaned the recliner all the way back and was basically just staring at the ceiling, a large bag of Cheetos on his stomach. Peter and MJ were both on the couch. MJ was half-watching the movie but was more focused on the close proximity of her and Peter. It was easier to be less aware of it when they were sober, but weed made her hyper-aware of her surroundings. 

She’d be completely lying if she said she didn’t like him. She had for a while; sophomore year, when all Peter did was fawn over Liz, is when she figured it out. The jealous anger she felt whenever she saw him throwing heart eyes at the senior was a dead giveaway. There were times she thought he liked her too when she’d catch him staring at her, or remembering some obscure detail of her life that she didn’t even remember herself. MJ always brushed it off though, reasoning that Peter was her best friend, so of course he remembers stuff about her, and staring isn’t abnormal.

Peter nervously fiddled with the strings of his hoodie for ten minutes before MJ decided to say anything. “You good?”

Peter snapped from his thoughts once she spoke. “Yeah, why?”

“Just seem a little on edge,” she explained, “and I can’t tell if that’s just you being a weirdo, or if I need to get a bucket in case you throw up.”

He chuckled and took a deep breath. “Stuck in my head, I guess. Also… should we, like, make sure he’s breathing?” Peter gestured to Ned, who’d froze with his hand midway from the Cheetos bag to his mouth, eyes locked on a painting that hung in the living room.

MJ twisted the cap off her water bottle and poured a little into her hand. She flicked the water towards Ned, who inhaled deeply as if coming back to life. “Welcome back to the land of the living.”

“Was I breathing that whole time?” Ned asked, sitting up in the recliner.

“Not sure, but you looked like you were on a whole other level,” MJ answered, walking back to the kitchen window to hit her pipe again, “and honestly, Leeds, that’s where I’m tryna get to.”

“It’s cool if we crash here, right?” Peter asked. He stood from the couch to stand with MJ by the window. 

“Duh. I’m not gonna make you guys walk home at midnight on a Saturday in Brooklyn.” MJ handed Peter her pipe. “Can you light this one, or do you still want me to do it?”

She didn’t give him any time to respond before saying, “Nevermind. Last time you tried to light a pipe, you burned yourself and a kitchen towel, so, uh, I’ll just light it for you.”

“Hey! It’s not my fault you only had matches.”

“And yet, you’re still the only one who burned anything other than weed.”

Peter rolled his eyes and brought the pipe to his lips. He inhaled as MJ lit the other end and exhaled out of the small kitchen window. 

~~~

“Are you sure you wanna tell her now?”

“Why do you say it like that?”

“Cause we’re all BLASTED, and if anything goes wrong, we can’t exactly leave.”

MJ could hear Peter and Ned talking in hushed voices in the living room. She was in the bathroom taking her contacts out because, for some reason, she thought it’d be a good idea to keep them in for this long. The apartment wasn’t sound-proof in the slightest, and MJ had grown accustomed to constantly hearing conversations from rooms she wasn’t in.

“What is it exactly,” she said while opening the bathroom door, “that you’re wanting to tell me?”

The two looked at each other with a worried glance. “Uh, what?” they asked in unison.

“You do realize I can still hear you behind the door, right? It’s not some magical, soundproof barrier.” She grabbed a bag of tortilla chips before returning to her spot on the couch, eyes not burning nearly as much from her dry contacts anymore. She looked between Peter and Ned expectantly. “Well?” Are they finally gonna tell m—

MJ didn’t have time to finish her thought before Peter leaped behind the couch with a yelp.   
“Jesus, weirdo. Is it hitting you extra hard or something?”

“No, it’s just, um, there’s a—”

“Spider,” Ned interrupted. “It’s on the table.”

MJ looked from Peter to the coffee table in front of her. A rather large spider scurried across the length of the table, and Peter walked into the kitchen to sit on the counter. “Get me a cup,” MJ instructed since he was already sitting next to the cabinet they were in. He tossed it toward the couch, and MJ used it to trap the spider on the floor next to the TV. She wasn’t really scared by spiders and insects or anything. Grossed out by them, yes, but scared, no. Her sister was exactly the same as Peter, if not worse, when any bug decided to make its home in the apartment, so she always had to be the one to deal with it. The joys of living with the absolute girliest of girls. 

“You know,” MJ started, standing next to the trapped spider, “it’s kind of ironic.”

“What is?” Peter asked, sitting back on the couch. His hair was messier now than it was before if that was even possible, but MJ still found herself thinking about running a hand through it. 

“That you’re so scared of spiders when you’re literally named after them.”

“What are you—” Peter’s eyes grew wide once he realized what MJ was insinuating. He looked to Ned for help, but he was back in his own world, eyes again fixed on the wall painting. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, please,” MJ commented, sitting back on the couch with the bag of tortilla chips in her lap, “you’re a horrible liar and even worse at keeping your own secrets.” She decided that it had been long enough of the bullshit stories he came up with.

“I am not! I don’t even have any secrets.” The tops of his ears turned a bright red color, just like they normally did when he was lying. Years of making up lies, and the idiot couldn’t even tell that he gave himself away. 

“So then what was it you were gonna tell me earlier?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing? Really, Peter?” MJ was starting to get annoyed, and the fact that she was blasted meant she had virtually no filter. “Cut the bullshit.”

He closed his eyes and took a long, deep breath. She could see him thinking way too hard about whatever he was gonna say next. “I’m sorry, Em, but I literally have no idea—”

“Do you not trust me or something?” she interrupted. In a way, she kind of resented him for never telling her. It felt more personal than just keeping some dumb secret from her. He constantly put himself in danger, knowing he may not come back, and he didn’t think she was important? good enough? to tell. “Is that why you won’t tell me?”

“No, MJ. Of course I trust you, but—”

“So then why won’t you tell me?”

“Because there’s nothing to tell!” he exclaimed, standing from the couch. He wrung his hands through his hair and sighed. Ned snapped out of whatever trip he was on and gave Peter a just-tell-her-already-she-already-knows look. MJ stayed seated on the couch, though she was just about ready to dropkick Peter in the head.

Peter took a deep breath before speaking after way too long of an awkward silence. “There’s nothing to tell cause you already know.”

“Know what?” MJ decided to play dumb, knowing fully well how riled up it would make him. Honestly, he deserved it for lying to her for years.

“You know what, Em.”

“Mmmm, remind me then.” She grabbed a tortilla chip from the bag and looked at Peter expectantly.

Peter rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by Ned. “Dude, just tell her you’re Spider-Man already so I can stop listening to you two bicker like a married couple.”

MJ raised her eyebrows at Peter, still waiting for his pending confession of his alter-ego.

“MJ, I—”

“—am Spider-Man,” she interrupted, watching a very stoned Peter Parker trying to figure out what the hell this conversation was. “Yeah. Smokey McPot over here just confirmed that. I’ve known for years now, but you were always too much of a bitch to tell me.” Yeah. MJ was pissed.

“Woah,” Ned interjected, “let’s chill for a second, Em.”

“Why? It’s not like I’m lying to you guys about the biggest secret of my life or anything. Can’t say the same for you.” MJ was now standing behind the couch, hands clenching the back of it. Heat rose to her face, and she could feel her anger bubbling to her core. 

“You’re really pissed at me for not telling you this?” Peter asked. He looked like a scared puppy, and while MJ was incredibly mad, she didn’t want him to feel bad about not telling her. I mean, he probably had a good reason, right? It was definitely not because he didn’t trust her. Right?

She took a deep breath and tried to keep herself from going off the rails. Yeah, she was mad at them, especially Peter, for not telling her he’s Spider-Man, but they were also her best friends, one of whom she had a ᵗᵉᵉⁿˢʸ ˡⁱᵗᵗˡᵉ crush on. Plus, she didn’t want him to leave the apartment in his current state. Way too much could go wrong on the walk between his place and hers, and she herself was too high to do anything about it.  
“I wouldn’t have told anyone,” she mumbled while looking at the floor. 

“I know, MJ. I know you wouldn’t have.” Peter moved to stand behind the couch with her.

“Then why didn’t you tell me?” MJ could feel her throat tightening, and no, they wouldn’t judge her for crying or anything, but she was NOT going to. “Kinda sucks being lied to for years, Peter.”

“I was trying to protect you,” he explained, moving closer to MJ, “cause if you knew, you’d worry too much, and I didn’t wanna make your anxiety worse.” 

“But I did know.” MJ leaned on her arm on the couch. Being high and exerting this much energy to be upset wasn’t a good combination. Her head was kinda fuzzy and her vision blurry, but she couldn’t tell if that was because of the weed or something else. “I did know, and I did worry. You didn’t do me any favors.”

“You look really pale, Jones,” Ned noted from the recliner. He sat fully up and had turned to face Peter and MJ behind the crunch. “Are you feeling okay?”

“I’m fine. Probably just smoked too much,” she answered, walking back to sit on the couch, but before she made it, her vision fell black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> twitter: @ruexlexi


	3. sweet dreams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ~fluffy & domestic~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> could’ve been getting ahead on my stats homework but i wanted to get another chapter up SO!!!!! thank you for the kudos bc this is the first time i’ve ever put my writing up for the public and i’m usually ~very~ picky about who i let read my stuff. i literally have no idea when chapter 4 will be up, but i promise it won’t be six months from now:-)
> 
> follow my twitter i swear i’m funny @ruexlexi

MJ woke up in her bed with a pounding headache and a bruise on her left arm. The room was dark, and the clock on her bedside table read 2:18 am. It took her a second to fully come to and remember what happened. The last thing she remembered was Ned saying she looked pale, and then everything went black. 

Quiet voices came from the other side of her door followed by three soft knocks. The door slowly opened, and the lights from the kitchen beamed through, illuminating the dark room. 

MJ winced at the sudden contrast. She turned her head away from the door and groaned. 

“Hey,” Peter quietly greeted, stepping into the room. He left the door cracked, and MJ could see Ned standing at the counter munching on the tortilla chips she had before. “How are you feeling?”

“Like shit.” She moved to rest against her headboard and pulled her knees to her chest.  
Peter sat on the bed next to her and put a hand to her forehead. “You don’t feel as warm as before, so that’s good,” he noted, handing her a cold water bottle. 

She shuddered as the water trickled down her throat and grabbed a blanket to wrap around her shoulders. “How long was I out?”

“About an hour,” he shrugged, “but I could be wrong. My sense of time isn’t necessarily the best right now.”

MJ chuckled and leaned her head against the headboard. As much as she did NOT want to have this conversation at the moment, she knew she wouldn’t be able to force herself to when she was sober. “So… You’re a superhero then?”

She couldn’t clearly make out Peter’s features in the dark room, but definitely felt him tense on the bed. He turned away from her and began fiddling with the sleeves of his sweatshirt. “I thought I was doing the right thing not telling you, Em. I didn’t know you’d think I don’t trust you.”

She sighed as her eyes adjusted to the partly illuminated room and saw Peter more clearly. 

“It’s fine, I guess. Can’t really do anything about it now.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I know.”

“I do have a question though.” He paused, turning to face her again. “If you knew, why didn’t you say anything?”

“I guess,” she started, shifting to lay back down, “I wanted you to WANT to tell me. Not just by default of me knowing, but because you wanted me to be part of it.” She felt her throat tightening again. Talking about feeling wasn’t her strong suit, so it was hard to be fully honest without pending tears. 

“I did want to.” Peter moved to lay on his side next to her. “I just thought I was doing the right thing by not.”

“Just,” MJ started, eyes fixed on the ceiling, not daring to look at the boy next to her, “no more big secrets, okay?”

“Okay.” 

The two of them laid in silence for the next few minutes. MJ focused on the sound of the George Lopez rerun on the TV in the living room rather than on Peter’s breathing. She knew he was awake, but her mind couldn’t come up with a coherent thought as to what to say.   
When the end credits started rolling, MJ turned on her side to face him. By then, they’d been lying there for almost 20 minutes, so it was no surprise to see that he was asleep. She glanced through the crack in the door to see Ned asleep at the kitchen table, hand still in the bag of tortilla chips. 

She used this time to study Peter’s face. Normally, they were never this close, cause why would two totally platonic best friends ever need to be? His hair was in desperate need of a trim and messily fell all over his head. The beginnings of facial hair were starting to grow in on his jawline, and she made out a small scar just under his eye. Battle wound? Dumb accident? She couldn’t be sure unless she asked, and she was content not knowing for the time being. 

After a while, MJ couldn’t keep ignoring how exhausted she was and decided it was time to knock for the night. She took a few more sips of water and downed a few ibuprofen. She’d rather not wake up with a weed hangover of all things because, yes, they do exist. 

~~~

MJ's eyes snapped open at the sound of a crash in the kitchen. She shot up from her position, which she immediately regretted. Her headache wasn’t as bad as before, but it was nowhere near being gone; the ibuprofen didn’t do as good of a job as she thought it would. She put her face in her hands and sighed remembering the conversation from last night. Peter wasn’t in bed anymore, and she assumed the crash was probably him and Ned, but she thought it best to check.

Hauling herself out of bed and opening the door, MJ saw her two loser best friends cooking in the kitchen. Neither one of them were spectacular at cooking, so it was a bit of a shock to see them there.

“Hey!” Ned exclaimed, flopping a pancake onto a plate next to the pan. There were quite a few already made. “Sorry if we woke you up. Peter can’t figure out how to work your blender.”

“I was gonna try to make those morning-after smoothies you always do,” Peter explained, “but then I remembered that I have no idea what you put in them.”

MJ smiled as she walked into the kitchen. She took a pancake off the large stack that Ned made. “You were a fuckin trip last night, Leeds.” 

All he did was laugh and continue to grill on the stove. MJ glanced at Peter to see him staring very intently on an empty blender. “You want help?” she asked.

He paused before answering, almost turning down the offer, but then realized he had no idea what he was doing. The most he knew how to cook was ramen, and even that sometimes went wrong. “Yeah, actually. I don’t really know what I’m doing.” He smiled shyly, rubbing his hand on the back of his neck, and MAYBE MJ’s stomach did a flip.

She opened the freezer and grabbed a large bag of frozen fruit and a cup of ice. “Put this in the blender.” She also handed him the tub of plain yogurt and a jar of oats she normally used. “Put these in there too, and then press the smoothie option on the blender. But please make sure you put the lid on first.”

Peter stared at the ingredients in front of him and nodded unsurely.

MJ sat at the small kitchen table watching her friends. Despite whatever arguments they had, they always took care of each other. Whenever it came to someone’s well being, no questions were ever really asked. MJ wasn’t really sure why she fainted last night, but her best friends were doing what they could to make sure it didn’t happen again. 

After a few minutes of dozing off at the table, Peter gently shook MJ’s shoulder. “Go back to bed, Em. You’re exhausted.”

“But you guys made breakfast,” she mumbled, head still bobbing in her hand on the table. “I feel bad.”

“It’s not going anywhere, MJ. I’ll just put the pancakes in the microwave,” Ned said, sitting at the table across from her. “We’re all pretty beat, so we can just eat the next time we wake up.”

She managed to mumble “mmm” before Peter draped her arm around his shoulder, and picked her up behind the knees.

He gently set her down on the bed and moved her legs to tuck her into the comforter. “Me and Ned will be in the living room if you need anything,” Peter said, making his way to exit the room.

“Wait.” MJ sat up on her elbows to see him. “Can you stay in here with me? At least until I fall asleep?” She was exhausted and really didn’t have the energy to tell herself all the reasons she shouldn’t have asked that. Plus, she could play the sick card if she needed to.

He tilted his head and smiled. “Yeah, of course.” He crawled under the comforter on the other side of the bed. He laid on his side to look at MJ like he’d done earlier and put an arm underneath his pillow.

MJ turned on her side to face him and pulled the comforter up to her chin. “Sorry for yelling at you yesterday,” she apologized. After listening to his reasoning, it made sense why he never told her, but it still sucked.

“And I’m sorry for not telling you sooner.”

“You did it for the right reasons.”

“Still, I should’ve known you’d figure it out. I mean, you noticed when I started ditching classes and quitting all my clubs, so I don’t know why I thought you wouldn’t figure it out eventually,” Peter said, adjusting his side position to get more comfortable.

MJ grinned as he talked about sophomore year. That was when she figured out that she wasn’t just watching him because she thought he was Spider-Man.

She honestly figured that she’d be over her crush by now, that it was just some dumb infatuation with a nice boy, but the speed at which her heart was currently racing proved her otherwise. 

He hadn’t stopped looking at her since he got into bed, and MJ could feel herself shrinking under his gaze. Yeah, he was her best friend, and no, he’d never do anything to purposely hurt her, but sometimes it felt like he knew EXACTLY what he was doing. He knew just how much he could mess with her head when he did stuff like ~that~.

That’s not who Peter was, though. He had the kindest heart and ALWAYS took better care of other people than he did of himself. MJ knew her anxiety was the main reason she thought things like that, but she also couldn’t stop herself from thinking them. 

Peter always had a way of knowing exactly when she’d catastrophize something. “Em, get out of your head,” he instructed, breaking the silence in the room. “You’re thinking too hard.”

“It’s what I do best,” she said, sinking deeper under the comforter.

“Wanna talk it out?”

“Nope.” Definitely not having that conversation right now.

Peter rolled onto his back, finally switching his gaze to the ceiling, and MJ felt herself breathe again. They stayed quiet for a while, but despite how tired she was, MJ couldn’t get herself to sleep.

“How are you such a good person?” she asked, unable to deal with the silence anymore.

“What do you mean?” Peter turned his head to look at her, remaining on his back.

“You’re literally always nice. To everyone. And to me when I’m, like, exceptionally mean to you all the time.”

“You’re just kidding around though. It’s not like you ever mean anything in a malicious way.”

“But you’re nice to Flash too and everyone who goes along with it.”

“I just don’t really care,” he explained, again on his side facing her. “I’ve dealt with it since, like, third grade. After a while, I just learned to tune it out.”

MJ nodded and gave a “hmm.”

“Plus,” he continued, “your comebacks are way better than mine. Easier to let you do the talking.”

MJ could feel her face flushing under the comforter. Luckily, it wasn’t noticeable in the dark room, and she mentally thanked her sister for buying her blackout curtains. She took a deep breath, hoping the influx of oxygen would help her concentrate on forming a coherent sentence. “Well, I can’t miss the opportunity to damper Flash’s ego.”

They fell into silence again, and after a few moments, MJ pulled the comforter down to her waist. Even though she wasn’t touching him, Peter was like a human space heater. It was nice though since MJ was the equivalent of an icebox most of the time. 

After another few minutes, Peter’s breathing evened out. MJ looked to see his eyes closed, dead asleep. She debated for a moment on whether or not to move closer to him. “What could happen? I mean, he’s sleeping,” she thought. “Plus, I’m cold and probably sick, so, it’s for warmth, right?” Right.

After thinking of the best way to go about this, MJ shifted downward on the bed and turned in toward him. He was still kind of on his side, so she folded an arm beneath her and rested her head against his chest. 

Almost right away, Peter stirred against her. Before she even had time to panic, he moved his arm from beneath his pillow and wrapped it around her back, pulling her tighter against him. Her breath hitched as she waited for him to say something. She looked up at his face, half-expecting him to be staring down at her with some i-knew-it face on, but his eyes were still closed. If anything, he looked more peaceful than before.

MJ rested her head back against him and nestled closer. She wasn’t quite sure what was happening, but no way was she going to question it. Her eyes finally shut as she drifted into a restful sleep, contently snuggled against a very comfortable Peter Parker.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes i took a line out of ffh okay shut up it’s iconic.
> 
> twitter: @ruexlexi


	4. have you eaten?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> mj can't do pre-calc. that's it. that's the chapter.
> 
> kinda jk but anyways::::
> 
> mj has an interesting convo with her sister, and peter facetimes her before bed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HELLO! i'm back from the dead!! i finished school like three weeks ago, and i'm literally so bored. quarantine sucks, and all i wanna do is go to the movie theater, but you know what?? i CAN'T. so i thought i may as well add another chapter to this since i'm not doing anything else. 
> 
> follow me on twitter @ruexlexi lmao i'm so inconsistent on there but i still want more internet besties<3

MJ woke up later that day to an empty bed and an empty apartment. Her alarm clock read 4:18 pm. The light shining through the cracks in her shades was significantly dimmer, probably because the sun was on the other side of the other apartment building by now. The lights in the kitchen were off, and her sister wasn’t going to be home for another hour. She rolled onto her back and groaned covering her face with her hands. MJ had a rep for not moving in her sleep. Like at all. She once fell asleep sitting up at her desk, and woke up 10 hours later in the exact same position. So that probably meant she hadn’t moved from cuddling against Peter. Cool. Yeah, that’s fine, right? She was cold, so it was for warmth, right? Yes, definitely, for warmth. Definitely.

She felt for her phone on her nightstand and was immediately blinded by the screen when she found it. She turned her brightness all the way down and saw she had a bunch of missed texts from Peter and Ned in their group chat. 

N: “hey, sorry we had to run, peter had some spidey thing to do with mr. stark and needed a ride”

P: “it’s not even spidey stuff, ned, he just wants my opinion on some new stark tech designs”

N: “okay that’s like the same thing”

P: “no it’s not. i don’t even have the suit with me”

N: “yeah cause if you did i wouldn’t have had to drive you”

N: “mj, i left the pancakes in the microwave if you’re hungry later”

P: “you’re acting like i made you drive me to chicago or something”

P: “there’s a smoothie in the fridge for you too, m. it’s in the back so it stays colder”

N: “dude you have to get your license at some point” 

P: “we also cleaned the apartment up so mel doesn’t flip when she gets home, m.”

P: “but it’s so much more fun to swing above the city than drive in it”

N: “you suck sometimes. you know that?”

MJ smiled reading through the texts from her best friends. Sometimes, she really didn’t know how she got so lucky with them. They were the nicest, most vanilla people alive, and she was the most criminally sarcastic person ever. It never seemed possible that a friendship between the three of them would work out, but two years later, and they’re still going strong. They all balanced each other out really well, so it worked. 

MJ sighed, realizing she had pre-calc homework due tomorrow, and forced herself out of bed. Walking into the kitchen, she noticed just how much they had actually cleaned up. The counters were wiped down, all the dishes were in the drying rack next to the sink, the snacks that were out the previous night were put away, and all of the weed stuff was back in its drawer. The living room was swept clean of any crumbs, and incense was burning in the holder on the coffee table. 

She took a deep breath and walked to the microwave to get Ned’s plate of pancakes. They were messily covered in saran wrap with a sticky note on top that read, “for mj. mel--don’t eat them,” in Ned’s messy handwriting. MJ then reached into the fridge to grab the now partially melted smoothie Peter made for her.

She sat down at her kitchen table with her pre-calc stuff after watching an episode of Black Mirror. Her notes themselves were neat and organized, but the content of the notes was not. It made no sense to her. “Great,” MJ thought, “it’s the first week, and I already don’t know what’s going on.”

MJ spent the next couple of hours trying to figure out the problems of her pre-calc homework before inevitably giving up. She made a mental note to ask the losers to tutor her in the subject later this week. While MJ finished her work at the kitchen table, her sister had finally come home from work. Mel danced at one of the clubs downtown most of the night, then worked at a coffee shop from morning to late afternoon. Ever since their mom died and their dad decided to go radio silent, they’d been paying off her medical bills on their own.

“Hey,” MJ greeted, knocking on Mel’s bedroom door frame. Mel sat on her bed with a towel wrapped around her hair and around her body. 

“Hey, dummy,” Mel returned, looking up from the book in her lap.

“Fault in Our Stars again?” MJ questioned, “really?”

“I don’t judge you for reading the Prisoner of Azkaban every other weekend,” Mel countered. She moved over to one side of the bed to make room for her sister to sit. “So, you don’t get to judge me for reading John Green every other week.”

MJ sat at the foot of Mel’s bed, feet outstretched towards the pillows, and leaned into one hand. “How was work?”

Mel sighed and set her book on her nightstand. She crisscrossed her legs and set a pillow in her lap, resting her hands on top. “Same old, same old. I think we’re almost done paying mom’s medical stuff, so I’ll be able to take less hours at the coffee shop soon, and I can come home earlier.”

“Or,” MJ started, “you could just quit dancing at the club. You literally complain all the time about it. Why not just quit it?”

Mel paused for a moment, thinking of a simple explanation. “It was so easy when I started, like, more for fun than money. But then we had to start paying the medical bills on top of everything else, and it’s not like dad was eager to help us out at all. Then it was just about making as much as I could, and the fun… Well, it just kinda went away.” Mel took the towel off of her head and shook her hair out, beginning to let it air dry. “But, it still pays more than my coffee shop job sometimes, so I can’t quit our main source of income.”

MJ chuckled and leaned her other hand behind her to evenly distribute her weight. Her grin slowly turned down, and she glued her eyes to a scratch mark on the wall. 

Mel looked at MJ for a few seconds, waiting for a response, but MJ continued to stare at the wall. She cleared her throat before asking, “Soo, how was the night with the boys? Any new tales of Philosopher Ned or Peter Parkour? I’m assuming Peter didn’t do anything too bad, seeing as none of our furniture is broken this time.”

MJ laughed, finally looking at her sister instead of the wall scratch. “No,” she started, “he behaved surprisingly well,” MJ paused, “but he finally told me about the secret he’s been keeping forever. He didn’t even mean to tell me though, I just heard him and Ned through the bathroom door cause, you know, we have paper-thin walls.”

“Ahh, okay. So Peter finally told you he likes you?”

MJ furrowed her brows looking at her sister. “Huh? What are you talking about?”

Mel froze for a few seconds before playing it off with a fake sneeze. “Wait, so, that’s not what he told you?”

“No? It was just something about his job with Tony Stark. SUPER classified apparently,” MJ said. That was the simplest way she could put it. 

“Oh, that he’s Spider-Man?” Mel asked nonchalantly. 

MJ’s eyes grew wide at her sister’s comment. “What? N-no,” she sputtered and found a loose string on her shirt to occupy herself with.

“Dude, the amount of times that Spidey’s had to come and break something up by the club is ridiculous, and who do you think he’s always asking to check on after anything goes down? It’s not like he can just change his voice with someone he’s constantly around,” Mel explained. “He asked me not to tell you cause he didn’t want you to be put in danger or anything. Plus, I kinda figured you already knew.”

“I DID know. He just never told me, and apparently neither did you.” It wasn’t that MJ was resentful to her sister and the losers for not telling her. She was just frustrated that they’d all decided what was best for her without letting her have a say. 

“Em,” Mel started, placing her hand on MJ’s leg, “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, but, to be fair, you’re the one who’s always giving me props about how good I am at keeping other people’s secrets. I just proved you right.”

“Yeah, whatever,” MJ mocked, rolling her eyes and trying to fight a small grin. “Just don’t do it again, okay?”

“Deal.” Mel stuck her hand out in front of her, and MJ readily shook it.

She stayed talking to Mel for a little while longer, then remembered she had to wake up at 6:45 am to get the subway for school in the morning. After finally making herself some dinner and taking a shower, MJ crawled into bed a few hours later at 11:37 pm. She tossed around for a few seconds before finding a comfortable position to look at her phone in. Of course, there were more texts from the losers in their group chat, but she also saw she had 3 messages and a missed FaceTime from Peter. He had only called her at 11:29 pm, so she wondered how she didn’t hear her phone buzzing on her nightstand.

MJ didn’t read any of the texts before deciding to call Peter back. “I mean,” she thought, “he’s probably still awake. He only called me a little while ago.” She reached up to turn the neon sign above her head on so that she wasn’t completely in the dark. 

Peter answered after four rings. “Hey, M,” he greeted. He laid in bed resting his head on his hand, and his face was dimly lit by the glow of his laptop.

“You called?” MJ shifted to sit up against her headboard and help her phone to the left of her. 

“Yeah,” Peter started, shifting to lay on his back, “just wanted to see how you were doing after last night. Oh, and to make sure you ate dinner.”

MJ smiled while rolling her eyes. “I ate cereal and fruit. I was NOT in the mood to make anything else. Pre-calc is already beating my ass. I don’t know how I’m gonna get through a whole year of it.”

“You know me and Ned can help. Both of us have pretty dim schedules, so we won’t ever really have much to do outside of class. Well, not me, I guess…” Peter trailed for a few seconds. “But yeah, anyways, we can tutor you on whatever you need.”

“Perfect. Saved me the time it would’ve taken suffering this week until finally giving up and asking you guys for help.”

“Yes, because you refuse to admit when you’re not the best at something,” Peter replied jokingly. 

“I didn’t call you back at midnight to be attacked like this, Parker. I WILL hang up.”

Peter laughed on his end of the call. He cleared his throat before continuing. “Alright, okay. You’re right. But seriously, how are you feeling?”

“I’m, like, 98% sure only I passed out because I hadn’t eaten or had enough water or anything, so after I ate what you guys left for me I felt fine. Crazy how nourishing your body makes you feel better, right?” MJ joked. Yeah, she had a problem with her eating and with drinking water and smoking too much at once, but she gets a free pass. Her mom died, and her dad left, so she’s allowed to give into depression and waste away a little bit, right? That’s what she told herself when she only ever reached for the pipe and lighter on her bed rather than the protein bars in her desk on the other side of the room. “Eh, whatever,” she would think, “I’m a fucked up teen in the 21st century. What’s new?”

“Sorry I haven’t been reminding you to drink water or anything the last few days. Mr. Stark is letting me do the programming for some new tech, so I’ve been all over the place.”  
“Peter, literally what are you apologizing for?” she asked. “You know it’s not your job to do any of that, right?”

“Yeah, but if I don’t, you’ll go the entire day on two sips of water in the morning and a granola bar at night.” He wasn’t wrong. If not only for the fact she just never felt like eating, it’d become so bad of a habit that she’d just plain forget to eat. When her, Peter, and Ned started hanging out more often, they started to realize how little she actually ate. They both started sending her reminders to drink water or eat something throughout the day. Honestly, if they didn’t do that, MJ would’ve ended up hospitalized for malnourishment. “And I’m not about to watch you waste away, M.” 

“I know, I know.” MJ moved to rest her head on her pillow and drew her comforter to her shoulders. “I’m just saying that you don’t need to be sorry for something that’s pretty out of your control anyway. Plus, it’s not like I ALWAYS eat when you guys text me.”

“It’s better knowing you’re intentionally not eating and not just forgetting, though, Right?” Peter pointed out. 

“I mean, I guess…” she trailed.

“Okay, well,” Peter started, breaking the silence between them, “I’m gonna go to sleep. I have to wake up earlier so I can walk May to work in the morning. She’s getting the oil changed in her car. So… goodnight, M.”

“Night, weirdo. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

MJ set her phone on her nightstand and rolled onto her back. She took a deep breath, staring up at the neon sign above her. She pulled her dab pen out from under the pillow next to her and took a few hits before finally snuggling under her many blankets to sleep.  
“He didn’t say anything about this morning,” MJ thought, “so either he doesn’t care, or he’s gonna give me shit later this week. Fantastic.”

MJ thought about the events from the weekend with her friends as she tried to fall asleep. The last thing she remembered before slipping into unconsciousness was of her and Peter laying face to face next to each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have zero clue when another chapter will be up, so pls don't have any expectations for me. 
> 
> twitter: @ruexlexi


	5. team bonding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the decathlon seniors have their first kickback of the school year

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> been feeling really shitty lately, so here's another chapter to make myself feel better. this is only part of the night, and the next parts are gonna be in the next chapter (which is almost done), so just bear with me for a lil.
> 
> follow my twitter and lets be friends:-) @ruexlexi

MJ opened the door to the backseat of Mel’s car and went to grab her backpack full of all her weed accessories. She locked the car as she walked to the fence on the side of Flash Thompson’s house. House was just a modest way of saying his family literally lived in a mansion, and Flash had his own separate place in the backyard. It was everyone’s favorite place to hang when they did decathlon bonding shit because Flash’s parents were never home, and even if they were, it’s not like they would care what they were doing. The only time any of them ever went into the main house was when they ran out of snacks in Flash’s room or when more than one of them needed the bathroom at a time. 

“How are you ALWAYS the last one to show up?” Flash asked, unlocking the fence to let MJ in. 

She stepped through, and they began walking toward his room. “How do you expect me to get anywhere on time in New York when driving a car?” 

“Fair enough,” he conceded and pushed his door open. “Guess who finally decided to show up!?”

Peter, Ned, Betty, Zach, Tyler, Yasmin, and Gwen all sat scattered around the blue-lit room. Gwen, Ned, and Peter sat on Flash’s dark blue couch, and Betty, Zach, Tyler, and Yasmin made their setups on the floor with pillows and blankets. 

“About time,” Peter said from the couch. He wore his blue midtown sweatshirt and his favorite pair of...gray...sweatpants…

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever, loser,” MJ said while kicking her shoes off and dropping her backpack at the door. “I see we have QUITE the setup of snacks for the night.” She saw the table of snacks set up by the window with everything from Doritos to brownies to a bag of mozzarella cheese. Everyone always agreed on bringing one snack to share, while MJ provided the weed. “And I see that Gwen took us up on our offer to join tonight.”

Gwen laughed and hugged a knee to her chest on the couch. “Eh, I figured if I’m gonna join the team this late, I should at least show up to things you invite me to.”

“And you’re not gonna rat us out, right?” Betty asked from her mini pillow fort with Yasmin on the floor. “You know, cause your dad’s, like, the police chief and everything?”

“Nah, guys. I swear. Plus it’s not like he’ll think anything is up at a DECATHLON team bonding party,” Gwen explained, “so, we’re all fine.”

“Okay good. Now that that’s out of the way…” MJ unzipped her backpack and reached inside, “shall we get started?” She pulled Mel’s bong out of the main pocket and held it in both hands for everyone to see.

Everyone exclaimed and made way to move into a circle. 

“Since Gwen is new tonight, does someone wanna explain to her how we do things?” MJ asked. She grabbed the other necessary items from her backpack to pack a bowl and sat down in between Ned and Zach. 

While she worked, Peter started explaining everything out for Gwen. “Basically, we come up with a prompt that everyone has to answer while we pass, in this case, the bong around. You answer the prompt, and then take a hit.”

“But only if you WANT to take a hit,” Yasmin chimed. “No one forces anyone to do anything they’re not comfortable with here. I don’t ever smoke, but these guys are my best friends, so seeing them high is a weird type of high itself. Plus, I usually end up getting a secondhand high by the end of the night anyway.”

“Yeah, we’re all pretty chill about whatever you wanna do here,” Zach added. “Just as long as you’re comfortable.”

“Anybody got any ideas for the prompt this time?” Tyler asked. “Cause I have a good one.”  
A chorus of “shoots,” “go for its,” and “go aheads,” came from the group. 

“Alright, so, prompt is: if you could spend the day with any of the Avengers, like ANY of them, who would it be, and what would you do?”

“I think this is one of your better ones, Ty,” Betty praised. 

“Me too,” MJ agreed, finally finished packing the bowl, and pulled her favorite lighter from her pocket. “Everyone cool with me going first?”

“It’s only right,” Ned answered.  
MJ smiled and crisscrossed her legs beneath her. “Okay, umm…” she started. “I guess if I could spend the day with any Avenger…” MJ furrowed her brows in concentration. She toyed with the idea of saying Spider-Man, purely to tease Peter, but she decided against it. “Hmm… I guess I’d probably wanna spend the day with Thor. We could go to Asgard, and he could show me around. It’d be pretty cool seeing anywhere other than New York.” MJ then proceeded to bring the bong to her mouth and take a pretty big rip. She coughed some, but not much. To be completely honest, she’d used her pipe less than an hour before driving over, so she already had the first hit of the night down. “Who wants next?”

Zach volunteered to go next, so MJ passed the bong and her lighter to her left. They continued to pass around the bong in a circle for the next half hour while everyone answered which Avenger they’d wanna spend the day with. Unsurprisingly, Flash said Spider-Man, while Tyler and Yasmin both said Black Panther. Betty and Gwen said Wanda Maximoff, Zach said Sam Wilson, Ned said Ant-Man, and Peter said Black Widow. Honestly, they were all pretty predictable answers. 

Once everyone who wanted to had taken a bong rip, they all began lazing around Flash’s room. They talked about their summers and what they’re looking forward to the rest of the year. Ned and Zach had set up camp right next to the snack table, making sure they didn’t have to stand up from their fort once they got the munchies. Flash laid on his bed, cuddling a purple teddy bear. The first time they decided to have bonding night at his place, MJ had teased him for it, but later that night, he opened up to them about how it was the same teddy bear he’d cry every night to when his parents never came home; they were pretty much always somewhere other than the house, and even when they WERE home, they left Gerald to raise him. Tyler, Betty, and MJ all sat at the foot of Flash’s bed debating which Percy Jackson book was the best. 

MJ looked around the room at her friends and smiled. She never felt welcome anywhere before she joined the team. By the time she hit high school, her mom had just died, and their dad had fallen off the face of the earth, so she and Mel had to find a cheaper apartment. The only livable place for a reasonable New York price happened to be on the other side of the city. All of her friends from middle school stopped talking to her right after she left Staten Island, so she started at Midtown completely alone. Betty was the first person she met, and she successfully convinced her to join the decathlon team. MJ kept to herself that year, mostly because she was still grieving over the loss of both of her parents. Sophomore year is when she started showing up to their parties and giving them more of an opportunity to see her as something more than the girl reading a new book every day. Eventually, she became captain, and the rest is history. 

MJ scanned the room for Peter. He sat with Gwen on the couch, both extending their legs straight toward one another. Peter rested his elbow against the back of his couch and used his hand to prop his head up, a big smile plastered on his face. Gwen rested her head fully against the couch and stared dreamily at Peter giggling at something he’d said. 

MJ’s mood rapidly declined. She WAS feeling like she was floating on a cloud, but now she felt like she was getting dragged on sandpaper. She stared at the pair for a while, watching them talking, laughing, staring longingly at each other. It was aggravating, really. They’re just sitting there, having this super intimate looking conversation in the middle of their team kickback. Get a room. 

“Guys!” Betty called over all of the separate conversations going on in the room. Flash turned the volume down on the music playing, and everyone turned to look at her. “I, um, have something to tell you all.”

“Go for it, Brant,” MJ encouraged from next to her, nudging her arm with her shoulder. 

“So, like, I’ve been thinking about the easiest way to say something, cause I don’t really know how, so I figured the best way would be when we’re all stoned together… I’m, um, like, uhh… I’m a lesbian.”

“Oh, wow, so you finally realized?” Zach joked from the snack table. “Cause the rest of us have known since sophomore year.”

“What? What do you mean you guys have known since sophomore year? I didn’t even know then!”

“Dude, you had just as big of a crush on Liz as I did!” Peter mentioned from the couch. His feet were on the floor now, and he leaned his elbows on his knees. 

“Jeez, guys,” Betty scoffed, leaning her head back against the mattress, “thanks for letting me know.”

MJ chuckled from beside her. “It’s just one of those things you gotta figure out for yourself, Brant.” She paused for a moment, “but I guess if we’re on this topic, I just realized I’ve never ACTUALLY told you guys that I’m bisexual.”

“Yeah me too,” Ned added. “That’s why me and Peter even became friends in the first place. I pretended I had a crush on a girl and kept asking if he could help me practice scenarios where he pretended to be her. Eventually, he figured out there was no girl, and that I actually just had a crush on him. Then, we laughed about it, and here we are now.”  
“This is true. This is very true,” Peter laughed from the couch, “but who's the one here that can’t go anywhere without cuffing their jeans and tucking their shirt in? Hint,” he pointed down at his ankles. “Realized THAT after seeing a picture of Thor for the first time.”

“If your gay awakening wasn’t Thor Odinson, then was it REALLY your gay awakening?” Zach said, shoving a handful of kettle corn in his mouth.

“Well, Flash’s gay awakening was Spider-Man,” Yasmin said from the beanbag in the corner.

“Shut up,” Flash answered from his bed. Honestly, MJ thought he was asleep until just then. “You’re not wrong, but still, shut up!”

MJ glanced at Peter to see how he’d react, now having the knowledge that his superhero alter ego was responsible for Flash’s awakening. He just stared awkwardly at his hands, now fiddling with the ring on his thumb.

They all laughed everything off for a while after that, everyone discussing the first time they realized their chaotic queerness. It was an oddly intimate moment for being discussed so lightly and openly, but then again, it wasn’t too big of a deal. It’s not like any of them would ever do anything to intentionally hurt each other just because of who they’re attracted to. It was just another aspect that made all of them who they were. Maybe they could even plan a group thing for PRIDE that year since they’ll all be going off to college only a couple of months later. 

It was moments like this that MJ was going to miss the most once they graduated. She knew the bond they all had together was special. It wasn’t just one of those teams where everyone cliques up with a couple of other people. They all genuinely got along with and cared about one another. Yeah, there were times that she wanted to slap Flash in the face or kick Ned over in his chair, but at the end of the day, she had nothing but love for them. They were more of a family to MJ than her ACTUAL family, other than Mel, of course. She never really imagined what her life would look like without them in it, mostly because she hadn’t needed to in the last three years. The thought made her kind of sick, really, of having to go months on end without one of their monthly kickbacks or weekly decathlon practices. The possibility of MJ even making friends at whatever college she went to was very low. As the team liked to say, she was an “acquired taste,” which really just meant that she was a sarcastic bitch until actually getting to know the reasons behind it. It was always a defensive mechanism to keep anyone from leaving her like her dad did. If HE could leave that easily, who else could? “I think it’s time for another round,” MJ said, interrupting her spiraling thoughts. “I’ll pack another bowl.”

~~~

MJ sat on the grass outside Flash’s room. She leaned against the tall tree growing there with her legs outstretched in front of her and her ankles crossed. Mel’s bong rested on the ground next to her. She elected herself to go outside and clear the bowl after everyone had decided they were finished, so she’d been out there for a while. She also just didn’t want to go back inside and see Peter and Gwen all loved up on each other. It shouldn’t bother her as much as it did, seeing as she never even told Peter about her crush, nor was she planning to. She couldn’t be mad at him for finally trying to pursue a relationship with someone, despite it not being her. 

“Hey,” Betty greeted as she walked over to the tree MJ sat at, “you okay out here?”

“Never better, Brant,” MJ replied, giving Betty an unconvincing thumbs up.

“Very believable,” she said sarcastically. She sat down next to MJ, mimicking her position on the ground. “What’s bothering you?”

“It’s nothing,” MJ dismissed. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Betty always knew when shit was up. She was her best friend other than Peter and Ned.

“Right, so that’s why you’ve been sitting alone outside for the last forty minutes.”

“Maybe I was just tired of being inside,” MJ offered. “It’s September in New York. This is like the best weather to be outside in.”

“True, but it’s not like you to be gone for this long during these things.” Betty paused for a moment before speaking again. “Does it have something to do with the fact that Peter hasn’t left Gwen’s side, like, all night?”

MJ sighed. Betty was the only person she ever told about her crush on Peter, mostly because she guessed, and there was really no point in trying to hide it from her. MJ had a feeling that Mel knew, but if she did, she never said anything to her about it. 

After she didn’t answer, Betty knew that was EXACTLY the reason why MJ was still sitting alone outside. “I’m sorry, M.”

“Nah, it’s okay; there’s nothing to be sorry for. It’s not like I ever told him or anything, so, it’s whatever.” 

“It’s still a shit situation.”

“No harm done, I guess.” MJ brought her knees to her chest and rested her chin on her clasped hands. “It’s not like there’s anything I can do about it.”

“You could tell him how you feel,” Betty suggested. MJ opened her mouth to protest, but Betty cut her off. “I know, I know. You think it’ll ruin your friendship and that he’s never gonna talk to you again. Seriously, M, it’s like you’ve never met him before. I mean, Ned had a crush on him for how long, and look at them now. Perfectly fine, healthy friendship, no awkwardness in sight.”

“Okay, but that’s different.”

“How so?”

“Well,” MJ started, “they were, like, twelve when that happened. Nothing ever meant anything when we were that young. Plus, they weren’t even friends before everything happened. If I tell him now, after being friends with him for years, it’ll just change the whole dynamic.”

“And how exactly do you know that?”

“Because why wouldn’t it, Betty?” MJ scoffed. She wasn’t mad at her or anything; she just wanted to be able to wallow in peace for a little while longer before bucking up and going back inside. “He’ll probably just avoid me until we graduate, and then we’ll go to college, and he’ll never have to see me again.”

Betty sighed and put her arms around MJ, pulling her close. MJ rested her head on Betty’s shoulder. “Peter’s not like your dad, M,” Betty explained, rubbing a hand on MJ’s arm. “He’d never do what your dad did to you, and you know that.”

“Yeah, I know. It doesn’t stop me from thinking about it, though.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> would anyone be interested in seeing the board i made on pinterest for this?? i have lil sections for each character and ship,,,it’s a secret board, so if you wanna see it, just message me, and i’ll send you an invite to the board<3
> 
> twitter: @ruexlexi


	6. truth or dare?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> things get a little ~spicy~ in a truth or dare game during the sesh

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> LMFAO HEY HOW YALL DOIN?? i'm literally so sorry for saying this chapter would be out in the next few weeks after posting chapter 5 and then waiting five months to finish writing it. i can't promise i won't do it again bc i most likely will after posting this chapter, but i'll try my hardest to figure something out hehe. i'm not super active on there anymore, but i will still be posting updates for this on my twitter if you wanna follow me @ruexlexi <3

MJ and Betty stayed outside for a little while longer before Ned came out to check on them. 

“Everything okay out here?” he asked, slightly stepping out of Flash’s door.

“All good,” MJ affirmed. She used her hands to help her up from the ground, and she pulled 

Betty to her feet after. MJ grabbed Mel’s bong, and the two of them walked back into the room. 

“We thought you died, or something,” Flash called from his bed. He was now under his comforter with a bottle of water in his hand.

“You really thought I died and waited that long to see what was up?” MJ asked, kicking her shoes off at the door. She walked to the reclining chair in the corner of the room and sprawled out on it. “What great friends you all are.”

“You’re the one who told us that if you ever left, we shouldn’t try and check on you for at least an hour. Or am I the only one that remembers that?” Zach pointed out. He and Ned were still on the floor by the snack table, both slouching against the wall. 

“So you listen to that, but not when I say to turn your phones on silent during practice? Interesting,” MJ chided.

“You’re a lot less scary at practice than you are when you wanna be left alone,” Peter surmised. He and Gwen were still sitting on the couch together. He’d slouched so his head was on the armrest, and his bent knees rested on the back of the couch. Gwen was in the same position on the other side of the couch, but her bent legs rested on Peter’s, not on the back of the couch. 

MJ rolled her eyes and turned her head to rest on her hand. She remained quiet while everyone got back to their conversations before she came back inside. “What if I DID tell him?” she thought. She played with the idea for a few minutes, but only ended up more discouraged than she was before. She’d created way too many possible negative scenarios that the positive ones just seemed less and less likely. 

“I’m ordering Taco Bell,” Flash announced from his bed. He held his phone over his face, still laying down on his pillow. “What do you guys all want?” Everyone shouted their orders at once, and everything blended together. “I’ll just pass my phone around, and you can just put whatever in the cart. Yeesh.” Flash tossed his phone to Tyler at the end of his bed, and they all proceeded to take their turn adding their orders to the delivery cart. 

“They’re gonna hate us,” MJ said, handing the phone back to Flash in his bed. “We ordered, like, the entire menu.”

“They’re still getting the money for it, so, eh, whatever,” he replied, grabbing his phone. His eyes grew wide after seeing the delivery cart. “Oh, wow. You weren’t kidding when you said the WHOLE menu.”

“Do you want us to send you the money for our food or…?” Gwen trailed from the couch. 

“Nah, food is always on me,” Flash answered.

“Thanks, Richie Rich,” Betty joked. She stood at the snack table piling a plate with brownies and potato chips. 

“We’re gonna have a while before everything gets here,” MJ pointed out while walking to her backpack by the door. She unzipped the front pocket and pulled out the bag containing her pipe in it. “Anyone up for round three?”

“Didn’t you, like, JUST finish a bowl?” Ned asked. He was now on his side, propping himself up with his elbow. 

“And your point is…?” she drawled, continuing to take her pipe from the bag and picking up her grinder. 

“I mean, I don’t know. Don’t you think you sh-”

“Leeds, shut your mouth right the hell now,” Flash warned, finally standing up from his bed, 

“I need this.”

MJ laughed from the recliner she had sat back down in. She sat with her legs crisscrossed, balancing her pipe on one knee and phone on the other. “So is it just me and Flash then or…?” 

“No, we’re all going because I just ordered everyone’s food, and I say so,” Flash said from the floor beside the recliner. He took a pillow from his bed and propped it against the wall to lean on. “Okay, well, not unless you want to,” he said, remembering their rule that no one does something they’re not comfortable with. 

Everyone gathered to make a circle, where they sat in all their red-eyed glory. “Do we   
wanna play like truth or dare or something this round?” MJ asked, closing her grinder and setting it on the floor. Betty tossed the lighter her way from the coffee table. 

“I’m down,” Yasmin and Zach affirmed.

“Yeah, why not?” Peter chimed. He and Gwen sat next to each other in the circle, Zach to Peter’s right, and Betty to Gwen’s left. 

After everyone else agreed to truth or dare, they decided Flash should go first since he spent an ungodly amount of money on Taco Bell for them. He took a very long hit from the pipe and set it on his leg. “Phew, okay, um… Betty, truth or dare?”

“Truth,” she replied lazily. “I’m not in the mood to get up.”

“Did you really hook up with Jason that one time at homecoming sophomore year?”

They all waited and looked at Betty expectantly. She chuckled. “Uhm… kind of?”

“Care to dive deeper into that, Brant?” MJ asked from the recliner. Of course, MJ already knew the answer, but she just wanted to mess with Betty in front of everyone. 

“I mean, well, like it kind of did and didn’t. We did NOT do, like, any of the stuff he said we did, but we still, kind of, like, made out in the janitor’s closet for a while.” 

Zach laughed and leaned his head on the wall behind him. “So? How was it?”

“One out of ten,” Betty answered, “but that’s only because he helped me get my earring un-caught on my dress later that night.” She reached over and grabbed the pipe and lighter from Flash and also took a very long hit. “Uhh, okay, Peter. Truth or dare?”

“Mmm,” he hummed, “I’ll do dare.”

Betty thought for a moment to come up with a good enough dare for him. “I dare you to kiss whoever in the room you would want to be the last person on earth with.” 

“Okay then,” Peter answered. He sat there for a moment, looking around at everyone until he stood up. 

MJ picked at her nail polish she’d had on for almost a month. It was almost all off anyway, so she continued to focus on that rather than the fact that Betty dared Peter to kiss someone. She was so focused, in fact, that she didn’t even notice Peter walk up to the recliner. “Yes…?” she asked once she finally realized him standing in front of her. 

He looked at her expectantly.

She stared back for a few seconds before finally realizing that SHE was the one he was about to kiss. “Me? W-Why?”

Peter didn’t reply; he reached his hands forward and cupped her face, pulling her slightly forward and tilting her head up. MJ didn’t have any time to process what was going on until he pressed his lips to hers. Her breath hitched at the sudden act, but she relaxed into his touch. The rest of the team broke out in a chorus of whistling and ooo’s, but neither of them really noticed. 

He hovered for a second before pulling completely away. The tips of their noses touched, and they both still had their eyes closed. After a few short breaths and finally opening her eyes, MJ pulled away from Peter. He dropped his hands from her face and chuckled awkwardly. 

“Get a room!” Betty joked from the opposite side of the circle. 

“Can it, Brant,” MJ said, pointing a finger at Betty. “At least I didn’t make out with Jason Ionello.” 

Betty opened her mouth to protest, but MJ raised an eyebrow and looked warningly her way. 

“ALRIGHT,” Peter called as he walked back to sit next to Gwen in the circle, “Zach, truth or dare?”

MJ tuned out for the rest of the game. She pulled her knees to her chest and leaned her head against the back of the recliner she sat in. She fixed her gaze on the air vent above her, starting to spiral back into her thoughts. “Okay, so that happened…” she thought. She and Peter had kissed a few times before, also at their decathlon kickbacks, but something about this time felt different. “I’m probably just reading too much into it,” she reasoned in her head, “he must’ve only considered me and Ned and just didn’t feel like kissing Ned, right? Or I could just be supremely stoned right now, and I should just stop worrying about it. That’s sober MJ’s problem.”

“Earth to MJ?” 

MJ snapped back into her current reality. Everyone was looking at her like they’d been expecting her to respond for a while. “Hm?” she hummed.

“Truth or dare?” Ned asked from 

“Oh, umm, truth I guess.”

“Okay, hold on,” Ned said, scrolling through his phone, “let me find a good one on here.” About a minute passed before he spoke again. He grinned at his phone before reading, “Okay. MJ, would you rather have sex with, uh,” he looked around the circle, eyes settling on Peter, “Peter in secret, or not have sex with him but have all of us think that you did?”

Peter groaned and fell onto his back, hands covering his face. Everyone chuckled, looking expectantly at MJ, waiting for her answer.

MJ sat wide-eyed in the recliner and took a deep breath. She leaned back and closed her eyes. “Where did he even get that from?” she thought to herself. “I don’t know if it’s just because I’m blasted or not, but this feels like it’s gonna be hard to come up with an answer that doesn’t imply that I actually do wanna have sex with him. Fuck.”

“Well, I mean,” she started, opening her eyes and tilting her chin down a little bit, “say we actually WERE screwing. He’d probably fuck up and accidentally tell you at some point, therefore ALL of you would know at some point after that, so either way,” she let her arms fall on either side of the recliner, “you all still think we’re fucking. I may as well get something out of it.” MJ turned her head to see Peter still laying on his back and his hands still covering his face. She laughed before continuing, appreciating the fact that she hadn’t completely lost her ability to uncomfortably tease him. “So, the first one I guess? Yeah, I’d just have secret sex with Peter, since you’ll all find out eventually. Plus, it’s more fun when it’s a secret. Dirtier too.”

“AHH!” Peter groaned, rolling onto his side and curling into the fetal position. His face was bright red, and he hid behind his oversized sweatshirt’s arm. 

“Hey now,” MJ teased, “that was a compliment. I just willingly said I’d have sex with you, Parker.” She pulled a knee to her chest and let it fall open to the side, watching as Peter shrank into the depths of his sweatshirt. “Relax, loser,” she joked, “it’s not like I said let’s go get it on in my car right now.”

“MJ!” He exclaimed, shaking his head underneath his arm. He finally sat back up, legs stretched in front of him, and his hands pressed to his cheeks.

“But, I mean, we can…”

“You’re pushing it, ‘Chelle,” Peter warned, pointing a finger toward MJ in the recliner. He was still as bright as a tomato. Everyone in the circle was currently losing their shit over this, laughter echoing in every square inch of the room. 

MJ held her hands up in fake-hurt defeat, “okay, okay. I’ll stop.” After the laughter had died down a few moments later, MJ snapped with her right hand, doing a finger gun at Peter. “No, but really, we can go out there right now and-”

“JONES!” He exclaimed, laughter starting to spread among the group again. 

“If he won’t take you up on the offer, I will,” Betty spoke over the group, struggling to get her words out between the breaths she took laughing. 

MJ raised her eyebrows and shrugged glancing between her and Peter, unable to keep a smile from growing on her face while doing so. It was so easy to get under his skin, sometimes, just like, way too easy. 

~~~

After almost an hour, their order from Taco Bell had finally arrived. Each of them grabbed their tacos, burritos, and whatever else they ordered. They all got at least one order of chips and cheese, so they decided to combine all the chips into one bowl and everyone could use their own cheese. 

They all scattered throughout the room again while they kept eating. MJ sat back in the recliner chair, and Betty squeezed onto the chair with her. Ned and Zach had resumed their places by the snack table, even though there was barely anything left. Flash, Yasmin, and Tyler all sprawled across Flash’s bed, deep in conversation over some unknown topic. Peter and Gwen were back on the couch, but they now sat only about a foot apart, the only thing separating them being the food in front of them. Flash put Ready Player One on the TV at some point and had dimmed the brightness on the blue LED lights illuminating the room. 

About an hour and a half into the movie, MJ glanced around the room. Everyone was asleep, including Betty, who was curled comfortably into MJ’s side. She looked at Peter and Gwen to see them cuddled together on the same couch they sat on all night. MJ rolled her eyes and scoffed to herself, not wanting to admit the fact that she was kinda hurt. 

MJ stared at the ceiling as the movie kept playing and her friends kept sleeping. She started thinking about their game of truth or dare earlier and how Peter kissed her of all people. She really didn’t know why he chose her at like; if anything, Ned seemed like the more plausible option. They’re literally best friends, and not that she and Peter weren’t ALSO best friends, but he and Ned had been closer for longer. “Maybe,” MJ thought, “he just wanted to kiss me…” she scoffed quietly to herself after the thought, “yeah, okay. That’s wishful thinking at MOST.”

Betty stirred at her side and moved to lay over the arm of the recliner instead of into MJ. MJ used this as an opportunity to carefully push herself out of the chair and tiptoed over to the front door. She slid her feet into her Vans and quietly dug in the front pocket of her backpack until she found one of the pre-rolls Mel had gotten for her a week ago. She grabbed her lighter out of her weed bag and headed outside.

When MJ was about halfway done with her joint, the door to Flash’s room opened behind her. She turned her head to see Flash walking over to the lawn couch she was situated on while he rubbed his hands over his face.

“Jesus, MJ,” he said, sitting down next to her and kicking hit feet onto the table in front of them, “it’s 3:30 in the morning. How have you not slumped yet?”

“Have you met me?” MJ said, taking another hit from her joint.

“Yeah, yeah. I know.”

MJ passed the joint to Flash, and they sat in comfortable silence for a while before Flash spoke again. “So…” he started, “how was it?”

“How was what?” She gave him a quizzical look.

“Locking lips with Parker. Duh, what else?” Flash teased. 

MJ rolled her eyes and scoffed, trying to keep her cool, “Oh my god. Really??”

He laughed, taking another hit of the joint. He coughed as he blew the smoke out of his mouth and waved his hand in front of his face. “I’m kidding, dude,” Flash joked. He handed the joint back to MJ, “I’m good for the night. I am GONE.”

“No, me too,” MJ agreed, dropping the joint back into its canister, “I don’t even wanna know how much I’ve smoked tonight because it’s definitely way too much than any recommended amount ever.”

“It be like that,” Flash shrugged, pushing himself from the patio sofa, “whoa. Is the world turning for you too, or am I just absolutely baked.”

“You’ve been baked since about 11 pm last night, kid,” MJ laughed, “but so have I, so I don’t think I’m in any position to talk.” She also stood from the couch, and they made their way back into Flash’s room. They lightly kicked their shoes off by the door, careful not to wake any of their friends up, and made their ways back to their respective spots on the recliner and bed. Flash turned Wreck-It Ralph 2 on the TV and lowered the volume a significant amount since it was just him and MJ still awake, and they’d probably fall asleep soon anyway.

MJ half-watched the movie for the next forty minutes, eyes wandering every now and then to Peter and Gwen asleep on the couch. She’d never admit it, not even to herself, but she knew she liked Peter a lot. Like, a lot. He made her feel all warm and happy inside whenever they talked, or even if she just saw him in passing in the hallway. She always felt safe around him, no matter the situation, she knew he’d always look out for her. There were times, like tonight, where the thought of Peter liking MJ back popped up in her head, but it usually disappeared just as quickly as it came. It was hard for her to think anything good like that could happen to her, not with her past. It was easier for her to think of the worst possible outcome and go under the assumption it would happen until proven otherwise. That way she wouldn’t get hurt again. Right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> twiter: @ruexlexi  
> i'm so sorry for the amount of time that is probably going to pass between posting this chapter and the next, like i really am. but that's what happens when you're ~mentally unstable~ lmfao


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